Volatiles - Revision history

Cfrjlr: /* Volatiles, The Key to Settlement */

2016-04-04T13:49:15Z

Volatiles, The Key to Settlement

2016-03-31T07:05:11Z

Applying artwork upgrade

2016-03-31T07:04:10Z

Changed protection level for "Volatiles" ([Move=Allow only autoconfirmed users] (indefinite))

2012-12-20T19:38:02Z

Processing Regolith: formatting

2012-12-20T19:36:59Z

Processing Regolith: effect of temperature on release of volatiles

2012-12-20T19:05:55Z

Volatiles, The Key to Settlement

2012-12-20T19:04:59Z

Volatiles, The Key to Settlement: formatting

2012-12-20T18:42:06Z

Chronic shortage of Helium-3 isotope could be resolved by mining lunar regolith

2012-12-20T18:35:52Z

Helium 3, Special Considerations: (analysis of present market)

2012-12-20T18:32:02Z

Volatiles, The Key to Settlement: added ref

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 * Other Inert gases, [[Neon]] and [[Radon]]
-When the regolith is heated to 900 deg C, a considerably quantity of sulfur compounds is released, including [[Hydrogen Sulfide]] and [[Sulfur Dioxide]]
+When the regolith is heated to 900 deg C, a considerable quantity of sulfur compounds is released, including [[Hydrogen Sulfide]] and [[Sulfur Dioxide]]
 <ref>[http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep602/LEC13/IMAGES/inventory.JPG] Inventory of Lunar Volatiles in first three meters of regolith (note log scale)</ref><ref>[http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep602/9301/node2.html#SECTION00020000000000000000] Concentrations of Various Volatiles in Apollo 11 Regolith</ref>.

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:05, 31 March 2016
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−	[[~~Image~~:~~Sandworm01~~.~~jpg~~\|thumb\|400px\|Sandworm proposal by [[User:Jriley\|Tom Riley]], Side View]]	+	[[File:Sandworm vectorized 07.svg\|thumb\|400px\|Sandworm proposal by [[User:Jriley\|Tom Riley]], Side View]]

	==Volatile Recovery on the Moon==		==Volatile Recovery on the Moon==

@@ Line 80: / Line 80: @@
 * 1,538 deg C -- Iron melts
-o a process to separate the voltile consitutents could be:
+A process to separate the voltile consitutents could be:
 * 1) heat to 400 deg C, collect the H and He
 (then fractionally distill to separate H from He)
@@ Line 90: / Line 91: @@
 * 5) Heat to 950 deg C and collect H2S and SO2
 (then fractionally distill to separate H2S from SO2)
-* 6) heat to 1,200 degC , separate remaining iron particles, cast the basalt into useful componennts
+* 6) heat to 1,200 degC , separate remaining iron particles, cast the basalt into useful components, then cool slowly to anneal.
 Fractional distillaiton would best be performed during the luanr night when ambient temperature falls, reducing the energy needed to condense the various gases.

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 The primary uses of the volatiles are:
 * Lunar use for breathable atmosphere
+* Earth orbit and interplanetary Spaceship atmosphere
-* Spaceship atmosphere
+* Rocket fuel and oxidizer, and reaction mass (esp Methane and Ammonia)
 * Industrial stocks
+* Helium-3 for the Earth market
 It is necessary to process only a few tens of kilograms of regolith a shift to replace atmosphere loses in an early small station. A much higher rate of processing will be needed to produce air to grow the settlement and to produce fuel and oxidizer for return flights to the Earth or for trips on to Mars.
 ===Helium 3, Special Considerations===

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 The major components (when regolith heated to 700 deg C) are:
-(in order of abundance)
+(in order of abundance and compared to the abundance of Helium-3 by mass)
 * [[Hydrogen]]--------(6,100 times Helium-3 by mass)

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 (in order of abundance)
-* [[Hydrogen]] (6,100 times Helium-3 by mass)
+* [[Hydrogen]]--------(6,100 times Helium-3 by mass)
 * [[Helium4]] with a trace amount of [[Helium3] one part in 3,100 by mass
-* [[Water]] (3,300 times Helium-3 by mass)
+* [[Carbon Monoxide]]-(1,900 times Helium-3 by mass)
-* [[Carbon Dioxide]] (1,700 times Helium-3 by mass)
+* [[Carbon Dioxide]]--(1,700 times Helium-3 by mass)
-* [[Carbon Monoxide]] (1,900 times Helium-3 by mass)
+* [[Methane]]---------(1,600 times Helium-3 by mass)
-* [[Methane]] (1,600 times Helium-3 by mass)
+* [[Nitrogen]]--------(500 times Helium-3 by mass)
 * [[Argon]]
 * Other Inert gases, [[Neon]] and [[Radon]]

@@ Line 75: / Line 75: @@
 ====Chronic shortage of Helium-3 isotope could be resolved by mining lunar regolith====
-Demand for Helium-3 is steadily increasing primarily for Neutron detectors.for cargo screening (for illegal fissile material).
+Even though nuclear fusion is not yet realized, there is already a strong market for Helium3 on Earth which might be enough to support a start-up robotic mining operation.  Refer to the detailed analysis at this link:  [http://www.lunarpedia.org/index.php?title=Helium#Chronic_shortage_of_Helium-3_isotope_could_be_resolved_by_mining_lunar_regolith]
 ===Cooking out the O2===

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 ===Helium 3, Special Considerations===
 [[Helium 3]] is a special case. As detailed in [[Harrison Schmitt]]'s book "Return to the Moon", it is the only lunar resource worth shipping back to the surface of the Earth at this time. In the long term, it could be used in fusion power plants on Earth as a source of clean, non-carbon energy. This type of power plant is currently under development, but is not yet near commercial operation.
-−
 Helium 3 is very rare on Earth and only a minor component of the lunar regolith volatiles. To refine enough to feed a power plant for a medium size city would require processing regolith at the rate of about 50 tons an hour. The scale of processing needed is directly reflected in the large scale of the proposed [[Sandworms|Sandworm]]. A commercial operation of this size on Earth would not be considered a very large facility, but we are talking about the Moon.
-−
 ===Cooking out the O2===
 The easiest source of oxygen on the Moon is a [[Titanium]]-[[Iron]]-[[Oxygen]] mineral called [[ilmenite]] (FeTiO3) which can be processed via a [[ilmenite reduction|reduction reaction]]. It is a straight forward process to [[magnetically]] [[beneficiate]] this mineral while handling the [[regolith]] [[fines]].

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 When the regolith is heated to 900 deg C, a considerably quantity of sulfur compounds is released, including [[Hydrogen Sulfide]] and [[Sulfur Dioxide]]
-<ref>[http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep602/LEC13/IMAGES/inventory.JPG] Inventory of Lunar Volatiles in first three meters of regolith (note log scale)</ref>.
+<ref>[http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep602/LEC13/IMAGES/inventory.JPG] Inventory of Lunar Volatiles in first three meters of regolith (note log scale)</ref><ref>[http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/neep602/9301/node2.html#SECTION00020000000000000000] Concentrations of Various Volatiles in Apollo 11 Regolith</ref>.
 This chart is a very interesting depiction of the valitiles available when regolith is heated to  700 Deg c: